Jenny Packham’s Eden for a Relaxed Barn Wedding

Jenny Packham’s Eden for a Relaxed Barn Wedding was last modified: September 19th, 2014 by Annabel

Afternoon my loves. You didn't think I'd sneak away without featuring a wedding today did you? Katy and Paul tied the knot on 15th December at St Mary’s Church, Astbury, followed by the reception at Sandhole Oak Barn in Congleton, and I love their wedding for all it's sweet simplicity.

There's is a story of love, romance, and hard earned gym sweat…

"Paul and I met at work over a treadmill. That’s right. Over a treadmill! ☺ I was a student at the time – and Paul was trying to teach me all about cardiac rehabilitation. I was far more interested in learning about what Paul got up to on a Friday night. Needless to say we went out for a meal, and the rest is history.

We got engaged at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire. Paul arranged a weekend away to celebrate the first day of my maternity leave before the birth of our beautiful little girl Martha Rose. We were engaged for two years before our big day. We always wanted a Christmas wedding, as Martha was 2 this year, it seemed the perfect time."

I returned to the store with both my mum and sister in tow, and came away a proud owner of a Jenny Packham Eden. A Mum always knows best!"

"I have a great love of VW beetles and it was my one and only choice of transport to and from the church. The vintage VW I travelled in was supplied by a friend."

"We never really wanted a particular ‘theme’, and we wanted it to be festive without being too ‘Christmassy.’ We wanted the wedding to reflect our personalities, relaxed and slightly ‘quirky!’.

I fell in love with my 1920s inspired beaded wedding dress the moment I tried it on and the rest followed on from there. We chose a Christmas wedding as it is always a special time of year for us.

I had two flowergirls. Our Beautiful daughter Martha Rose, and our beautiful niece Emily Kate. The both wore an Ivory Dress from Debenhams. Their silver sequin ballet pumps were from monsoon. They wore a gorgeous ivory fur coat also from monsoon."

"We chose a tiered Victoria sponge for our cake, decorated with seasonal berries and fresh flowers. We were looking for an alternative to a traditional wedding cake, and came across Kay at Kay’s cakes, Newcastle-u-Lyme, through our florist. The cake was exactly what we wanted and was very fitting for our seasonal wedding"

"We choose our venue, Sandhole Oak Barn in Congleton because to us, it was perfect. A beautiful setting and everything that we were looking in a venue for our Christmas wedding.

The invitations and order of service were lovingly hand made by myself and then printed by my dad. We chose to have vintage brown postcard invites wrapped with natural twine and a painted wooden heart. The invites and the order of service both displayed a winter oak tree. This was styled on the memorable oak tree at Sandhole Oak Barn. The table plan was a personalised chalk board made by Butterfly Daisy, Market Drayton.

I hand finished it by writing all of our tables and guests on it. It was then decorated with fairy lights – you can never have too many fairy lights!"

"Our photographer was Alex Davies. The moment we saw Alex’s work, we knew we had to have her photograph our wedding. Her style is just beautiful and exactly what we were looking for. Alex is so friendly and relaxed- she put us at ease immediately. Alex managed to capture the atmosphere of our day perfectly. Our photos are stunning and we can’t thank her enough."

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"We chose a religious (1 Corinthians 13 ) and a non-religious reading – ‘Love is a temporary madness’ (from Captain Corelli’s mandolin by Louis de Bernieres). Two readings that are simple but say everything."

"I handmade personalised hanging Wooden heart name place settings that doubled up as a favour. I regretted the idea, 100 hearts down the line, (and 3 days to go before the wedding!) but I was really happy with the final result. I know they ended up on lots of Christmas trees."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Remember that this is ‘your’ special day – so do it your way.

Everything was simply amazing. We couldn’t possibly pick a favourite part, the whole day was perfect. Everyone who knows us will tell you that we are extremely laid back, relaxed and last minute – but perhaps we could have been slightly more organised and Paul may have made it to the rehearsal if he hadn’t been buying his shoes at 4pm the day before our wedding!"

Simple, honest, and very lovely. Congratulations to you Katy and Paul, and a huge thank you to photographer Alex Davies for sharing these photographs today.

You know, Jenny Packham' is one of the most popular designers whose creations grace the pages of this blog, you can see lots more brides looking graceful in her designs on Love My Dress here too. Jenny Packham Eden fans, what say you? How will you be wearing your dress on your wedding day – with a lovely shrug like Katy here? What about your shoes and a veil?

9 thoughts on Jenny Packham’s Eden for a Relaxed Barn Wedding

What a beautiful day Katy and Paul make such a lovely couple, and I smiled to read they were so laid back and relaxed about things that Paul missed the rehearsal! Love that! Those menu cards in the style of vintage postcards are amazing aren’t they… up there with Jenny Packham for wow factor if you ask me Claire

Wow you look fab! I am wearing the ‘Eden’ dress to my wedding, I ordered it a few months ago and had begun to forget what it looks like on and was beginning to lose my nerve. I came searching the’Love My Dress’ blog in the hope that I would find some pictures of it that would renew my faith and you have done so, so thank you and congrats for a fab and original wedding.